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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Petri dish (or cell culture dish) is a
shallow glass or plasticcylindrical lidded dish
that biologists use to culturecells. It was
named after German
bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri[1], who
invented it when working as an assistant to Robert Koch. Glass Petri dishes can be
reused by sterilization (for
example, in an autoclave
or by dry heating in a hot air oven at 160°C for one hour). For
experiments where cross-contamination from one experiment to the
next can become a problem, plastic Petri dishes may have to be
disposed of after one use.

Modern Petri dishes often have rings on the lids and bases which
allow them to be stacked so that they do not slide off one another.
Multiple dishes can also be incorporated into one plastic container
to create what is called a "multi-well plate".

Microbiology

For microbiology, agar plates are very frequently used. The
dish is partially filled with warm liquid agar along with a particular mix of nutrients,
sheep blood, salts, sugars, dyes, indicators and amino acids and,
optionally, antibiotics. After the agar solidifies, the
dish is ready to receive a microbe-laden sample. Petri plates are
incubated upside down (agar on top) to keep the weight in the lid
for sterility, and so excess water accumulates away from the
bacterial colonies.

Other
uses

Other Petri dish uses do not involve agar; for instance, cell culture.

As well as making agar
plates, empty Petri dishes may be used to observe plant
germination or small animal behavior, or for other day-to-day
laboratory practices such as drying fluids in an oven and carrying
and storing samples.

A petri dish is a small dish shaped like a cylinder. Scientists use it to grow cells from animals, fungus, and diseases so they can study them. They are usually made of glass or plastic. The glass ones can be used again if they are heated at 160°F. Sometimes people fill them with agar, which helps cells grow. These are called 'agar plates'. Many people use them in science classes at school. They have lids so germs in the air can not get into them, or contaminate them, and ruin the experiment.